jeudi 18 septembre 2014

Animals that don't Exist

The Feudal Wolf

The feudal wolf, Canis
lupus feodalis, is a subspecies
of the gray wolf
found only on King Island, located in the Behring Straits
and claimed by both Russia and the United States of America. Although
closely related to the gray wolf, marked behavioral differences
warrant the status of sub-species.

When
gray wolfs form a pack, the alpha male is also the one to lead the
hunt. In addition, the alpha male and female maintain the pack
hierarchy, which allows them to coordinate as a group. In feudal
wolfs, this is not so.

Although
they are at the top of the hierarchy, alpha males and females of
feudal wolfs do not participate in the hunt. Like in lion prides,
they simply wait in their lair for the others to bring them food.
However, as there is only one pack of feudal wolfs living on King
Island, they do not need to defend their territory, as the male of a
pride of lions would.

It
has been observed that the alpha animals patrol the island from time
to time. Whenever they encounter another wolf eating, they will
attack him without mercy. On several occasion, they killed the
offender. This behavior is of
course used to deter underlings who try to hoard food. But since it
can lead to death, it is also a selection mechanism which will favor
more docile traits in the underlings. It is probably due to this that
most often, alpha animals are replaced by their descendants.

There
have been several theories as to the origin of the feudal wolf's
strange behavior. Prof. Ikmar Ketakki, of the Finnish Institute of
Wolf Studies (FIWS), believes that it has to do with the fact that
the wolfs have arrived on the island at the same time as the last Ice
Age ended, about 10'000 years ago. This is the same time-frame in
which the genetic drift between the feudal wolf and the gray wolf
accelerated, and it is commonly accepted that the feudal wolf was
left stranded on King Island during that period. Since food was
scarce during that time, wolfs who hoard food would have a higher
chance of survival. This increased fitness would allow the hoarders
to steal prey from other wolfs they encountered, and this led to the
pack-structure seen today.

Dr.
Luke Beddington, from the English College of the Good Ol' Chaps
(ECGOC), however, has a different opinion. An overall increase in
hoarding behavior would hinder the pack-structure
seen today, he argues, since the underlings would have a natural
tendency to hoard their food. Instead, he believes it is due to the
wolfs' intelligence. Unlike their cousins on the mainland, the feudal
wolfs do not have any big game to hunt. Their prey is mainly composed
of birds and rodents. When the prey is big, it is necessary to be
part of the hunt to get a good piece, since it cannot be easily
transported. As such, resources are best invested in hunting. But
when the average of the prey became much smaller, it became more
effective to have others hunt for you and bring you prey one by one.
Dr. Beddington believes that, just as humans have tamed wolfs, the
alpha wolfs of King Island have tamed their fellows.